17th year without a PC release

I think most if not all of us can agree that the whole "market is too small" is complete nonsense. With the amount of people petitioning in years past and people still begging EA to make it a release on PC yet they still refuse to do so. Yeah streaming it on cloud gaming(which to my knowledge is not yet available for 26 as of this writing) is an option but the game comes out in September, it's almost March and still isn't available to stream and honestly while streaming the game is better than I thought when I streamed 24, it's still streaming the game and so obviously lag is an issue.

I firmly believe one of the biggest reasons we don't see it released on PC is EA fears the modding community. They know once they release it on PC and the modders get ahold of it, they will turn EA's mediocre idea of what hockey is and turn it on it's head. In doing so it would virtually guarantee no new sales of following years. That's the one reason that makes the most sense. You don't see Madden being modded all that much which is no surprise since player numbers in that game have dwindled. The fact you can play in club and league games on Chel where every position is filled by an actual player along with the passion of hockey fans makes Chel a more favorable choice. I've played it on XBOX since 2014 and I don't know what the actual numbers are, but it sure seemed like there were alot more people playing Chel. Sure the drop-in community took a hit in the volume of players but that has an ebb and flow feel to it. Some years there's more, others less but at some point will rebound but I don't even think it matters all that much since Club is where you go to find the real competitive games.  Release it on PC with cross platform and this game would kill it. Soccer is fun but to me having so many Ai on the field takes away from what it could be. Not so with Chel. The casual gamer would be also more likely to play hockey over soccer, I mean cmon it's the one sport where fighting occurs regularly and is just part of the game. Now add the ability to mod it, not having to see the same helicopter on a mountain year after year, graphic updates, Ai tuning, better penalty calling, the list goes on and on and we end up with what we as the consumer have always wanted. Even if modding weren't a possibility, bringing it to PC would bring in so many more players, add it to Steam Deck as well and it's an overnight success. 

I had bought an Xbox Series X just to play Chel. Only reason I bought it, played Chel 25 and by last summer I got sick of just having this extra console collecting dust if I wasn't play hockey so I gave it to my daughter and her boyfriend. It's sucked without playing hockey this year but I'll be damned if I go buy another Xbox and why should I when Pc has all the capabilities to run the game and the next Xbox will end up being tied in with Windows anyways. I'm sure there will be alot of disagreements with what I said and that's fine, we are all entitled to our opinions and I'd honestly be interested in what others could come up with for reasons why EA just walls off the PC players. This wasn't a bash EA post either but it's honestly real difficult to have anything positive to say. They own all the rights which is complete bullsh*t but I'm still pretty surprised another company hasn't tried to make a hockey game. The fan base is there, just look at the Olympics with the US vs Canada gold medal game, drew an average of 27.6 million viewers. In Canada it was around 16 million. And the game started at 8am EST on a Sunday...

Cmon EA, do the right thing and make the game available to all platforms for 27, with a release date for all platforms on the same day. 

Regarding putting this game on PC. They would have to expand their licensing and server support. Right now two things stand in the way. Their desire to do so. And the viability of it being worthwhile financially. And i dont believe they see the return to PC as a financial asset. They use to have a PC version many years ago. But when consoles expanded, like they have today, with computer like qualities. They went the route of the console version, and ditched the PC format. Personally. And i say this unfortunately as well. I dont think a PC version is in their future. Also. I dont think there has been a big enough concensus to validate a change in their thinking.

Game needs tons of QoL fixes before they should even consider porting it over

When are you guys going to release NHL26 on pc. It’s 2026 come on, We need a pc version on NHL now

Edit: Merged message with the already existing thread for this issue. -CM

The state of this series, of which was once good/fun and playable, is awful on the consoles. Meaning, this company is doing a massive injustice to an awesome sport. Ruining it on more platforms, although wouldn't be much of a stretch for this "team", is sort of a bittersweet scenario. 

If it isn’t profitable, worth their resources and/or not due to partnership agreements they’re not going to make a PC version.

Simple as that.  All companies would want their game to be able to be played on all platforms to maximize their players.  Obviously EA has their reason for not making a PC version. 

Hey bud. Im on your side regarding bringing back a pc version. It was because of the original pc version that i got into playing. My comment about it being bleak  is based on the current attitudes of this franchise, as well as the financial losses, and player reduction, that i made that comment. Now that EA may be under new ownership. Will have to see the direction they take regarding sport franchise games.

dogheels wrote:

The future of a PC version is bleak

Hoping they do come out with a PC release. Looking at steam charts for some hockey games that came out in the last few years and there is definitely a market for hockey games, both these games were free and done by independent developers.

Slapshot: Rebound 
Released in April of 2024, highest estimate ownership at 2.01 million.
Gamalytic puts total downloads in the range 1.2m - 2.7m with 2.3k in the last 7 days

Puck
Released in January of 2025, highest estimate ownership at 681.8 thousand.
Gamalytic puts total downloads in the range 392.4k - 717.9k with 6.1k in the last 7 days

The reasons why are. As a sports franchise game, they are in the lower tier of sales. And do to this, the staff has been reduced from what it use to be when the game was in far better shape. Its not that they cant make a PC version. That idea was established decades ago. Your point regarding the money aspect, is spot on. Its all about profitability. And unless the franchise can turn the ship around and gain ground with other sporting games. The future of a PC version is bleak.

This is all pure speculation and really not accurate. I can't go into details since we don't release sales numbers and we can't talk about staffing, but these claims are exaggerated.

The reasons why are. As a sports franchise game, they are in the lower tier of sales. And do to this, the staff has been reduced from what it use to be when the game was in far better shape. Its not that they cant make a PC version. That idea was established decades ago. Your point regarding the money aspect, is spot on. Its all about profitability. And unless the franchise can turn the ship around and gain ground with other sporting games. The future of a PC version is bleak.